Star Wars Battlefront

Overview

Star Wars Battlefront is a shooter from EA developed by DICE Stockholm. After EA acquired the rights to produce Star Wars games under license from Disney and revealed that DICE specifically was working on a new game from that franchise, many began to speculate that a new Battlefront game was in development from the studio. Such rumors were confirmed at E3 2013, when EA showed off a teaser trailer depicting a battle on Hoth. The game was made by the original DICE studio in Stockholm, with DLC and premium services potentially made by the recently opened DICE Los Angeles studio (formerly Danger Close Games). During E3 2014 a teaser video confirmed Endor as a location in the game.

The game featured four planets at release: Endor, Hoth, Tatooine and Sullust (a location not featured in the films). The game will have more than 8 maps with more than 2 per planet according to design director Niklas Fegraeus. There will be a free post-release DLC pack titled The Battle of Jakku which, set shortly after the Battle of Endor, will explain the back-story of the desert planet Jakku that is featured prominently in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. This will become available on December 8th ahead of the film.

The game will not feature content from the prequel movies and is instead focusing on the battles of the original trilogy. Space battles will not be featured in this game with DICE opting to focus on "the core of Star Wars battles - the Endors, the Hoths, et cetera" though atmospheric dog-fighting will be included.

Like the Pandemic Studios developed games Battlefront will include first and 3rd person perspectives able to be switched freely with the best players mastering both. Also returning from the previous games is the concept of heroes; allowing players to enter the battle as iconic Star Wars characters, including but not limited to Darth Vader and Boba Fett as well as spacecraft like the Millennium Falcon. Each hero will have unique traits and are intended to be like boss characters being very powerful and also becoming high value targets. Heroes depend heavily on game mode and will enter the battle differently depending on mode.

Players will be able to use power-ups with one demonstrated being a portable shield generator.

Battlefront does not feature a typical shooter single-player campaign. Instead there was a Missions mode which can also be played in co-op, both online and locally with split-screen (split-screen is not available online). Missions is a series of levels against bots that are short and intended to be replayed on higher difficulties.

Battlefront will have maps of various size catered to different modes, with one revealed mode being Walker Assault, one of the games largest modes supporting 40 players and is based around an Imperial team pushing forward with AT-ATs and AT-STs with the Rebel forces on the defensive.

Battlefront will not be using the Battlelog system seen in DICE's recent Battlefield titles and will use its own system. Instead Battlefront will use a skill-based match making system for finding games and use a companion app integrating the stat tracking. remote customization options and loadout building. Additionally the companion app will include a strategic card game called Base Command through which players can unlock items and earn in-game credits.

Game Modes

Walker Assault:

An asymmetrical 40 player mode where the Imperial team leads a column of AT-ATs towards the Rebel team's base which they must defend by calling in Y-Wing strikes through keeping sets of uplinks active.

Supremacy:

A Tug of War style conquest mode for 40 players in which two teams attack and defend a series five of control points in a linear sequence. The game starts with a 10 minute time limit, however time is added each time a control point is captured. If a team controls all 5 control points they immediately win.

Fighter Squadron:

A 20 player dog-fighting based mode that involves an additional 20 AI controlled ships . Squadrons of Imperial and Rebel fighters compete to reach a 200 kill target within a time limit while also attacking or defending AI controlled transport ships as part of a secondary objective.

Blast:

A 10 on 10 Team Deathmatch mode. First team to reach 100 kills within a 10 minute round wins.

Drop Zone:

A 8 on 8 King of the Hill game mode where players fight over a drop pods that increase in number as the game goes on.

Cargo

A 6 on 6 Capture the Flag game mode. Each team has 5 boxes of cargo in their own base and must try to capture as many of the enemies boxes while defending their own.

Droid Run

A 6 on 6 domination mode with roaming objectives. Each map has 3 GNK droids moving around on a path. The team that holds all 3 droids before the 10 minute timer expires wins the match.

Missions:

Missions can be played solo offline or in co-op locally via split-screen or online. There are a number of modes within missions.

Survival:

A wave based survival mode where player controlled Rebels need to hold out against increasingly challenging waves of AI controlled Imperial forces.

Battles:

A player versus player or cooperative mode in which the goal is to be the first team to collect 100 tokens by defeating opposing AI to win.

Hero Battles:

Similar to battles, with the added mechanism of playable heroes, such as Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Princess Leia, Darth Vader, Emperor Palpatine, and Boba Fett. Defeating heroes and villains are worth more tokens.

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